Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1200

Rh 1188 TULLIUS. year B. c. 495, with the exception of tlie Crustu- mina, take their names from patrician gentes. Thirdly, the establishment of the Claudian tribe, consisting as it did mainly of the patrician Claudia gens, is almost of itself sufficient to prove that patricians were included in the Servian tribes. Niebuhr lays great stress upon the fact that in no instance do we find the patricians voting in the Comilia Tributa before the time of the decemvirs ; but as Becker very justly remarks, this does not prow e any thing, as we have no reason for supposing that the Comitia Tributa were established by Servius along with the tribes. Such an assembly would have had no meaning in the Servian consti- tution, and would have been opposed to its first principles. The Comitia Tributa were called into existence, when the plebe began to struggle after independence, and had tribunes of their own at their head ; and it is certainly improbable that patricians should have been allowed to vote in assemblies summoned by plebeian magistrates to promote the interests of the plebs. The Comitia Tributa must not therefore be regarded as assem- blies of the tribes, as Becker has justly remarked, but as assemblies of the plebeians, Avho voted according to tribes, as their natural divisions. Hence as the same writer observes, we see the full force of the expression in the Leges Valeria Horatia, Publilia and Hortensia : " quod iributim phbes jussisset." The tribes therefore were an organisation of the whole Roman people, patricians as well as plebeians, according to their local divisions ; but they were instituted, as we have already remarked, for the benefit of the plebeians, who had not, like the patricians, possessed previously any political organi- sation. At the same time, though the institution of the tribes gave the plebeians a political organi- sation, it conferred upon them no political power, no right to take any part in the management of public affairs or in the elections. These rights, however, were bestowed upon them by another institution of Servius Tullius, which was entirely distinct from and had no connection with the thirty tribes. He made a new division of the whole Roman people into Classes according to the amount of their property, and he so arranged these classes that the wealthiest persons, whether patri- cians or plebeians, should possess the chief power and influence. In order to ascertain the property of each citizen, he instituted the Census^ which was a register of Roman citizens and their property, and enacted that it should be taken anew from time to time. Under the republic it was taken afresh, as is well known, every five years, Lists of the citizens were made out by the curator tribus or magistrate of each tribe, and each citizen had to state upon oath the amount and value of his pro- perty. According to the returns thus obtained a division of the citizens was made, which determined the tax {tribuium which each citizen was to pay, the kind of military service he was to perform, and the position he was to occupy in the popular assembly. The whole arrangement was of a mili- tary character. The people assembled in the Campus as an army (exercitm, or, according to the more ancient expression, classis)^ and was therefore divided into two parts, the cavalry (equites)^ and infantry (pedites). The infantry was divided into five Classes. The first class contained all those persons uhose prc^erty amounted at least to TULLIUS. 100,000 asses: the second class those who had af least 75,000 asses : the third those who had at least 50,000 asses: the fourth those who had at least 25,000 asses : and the fifth those who had at least 10,000 asses, according to Bockh's pro- bable conjecture, for Dionysius makes the sum necessary for admission to this class 12,500 asses (12^^ minae) and Livy 11,000 asses. It must be recollected, however, that these numbers are not the ancient ones, when the as was a pound weight of copper, but those of the sixth century of the city. The original numbers were probablv 20,000, 15',000, 10,000, 5000, and 2000 asses respectively, which were increased fivefold, when the as was coined so much lighter. (Bockh, Metrologische Untersuchungen, c. xxix.) Further, for military purposes each of the five classes was divided into elder (Seniores) and younger {Juniores) men : the former consisting of men from the age of 46 to 60, the latter of men from the age of 17 to 45. It was from the Juniores that the armies of the state were levied : the Seniores were not obliged to serve in the field, and could only be called upon to defend the city. Moreover, all the soldiers had to find their own arms and armour ; but it was so arranged that the expense of the equipment should be in proportion to the wealth of each class. Servius however did not make this arrangement of the people for military purposes alone. He had another and more important object in view, namely, the creation of a new national assembly, which was to possess the powers formerly exercised by the Comitia curiata, and thus become the sovereign assembly in the state. For this purpose he divided each classis into a certain number of ceniuriae, each of which counted as one vote. But in accordance with the great principle of his constitution, which, as has been several times remarked, was to give the preponderance of power to wealth, a century was not made of a fixed number of men ; but the first or richest class contained a far greater number of centuries than any of the other classes, although they must at the same time have contained a mucii smaller number of men. Thus the first class con- tained 80 centuries, the second 20, the third 20, the fourth 20, and the fifth 30, in all 170. One half of the centuries consisted of Seniores, and the other half of Juniores ; by which an advantage was given to age and experience over youth and rash- ness, for the Seniores, though possessing an equal number of votes, must of course have been very inferior in number to the Juniores. Besides these !70 centuries of the classes, Servius formed five other centuries, admission into which did not depend upon the census. Of these the smiths and carpenters (fabri) formed two centuries, and the horn-blowers and trumpeters (comicines and tuhi- cinef) two other centuries : these four centuries voted with the classes, but Livy and Dionysius give a different statement as to which of the classes they voted with. The other century not belonging to the classes, and erroneously called the sixth class by Dionysius, comprised all those persons whose property did not amount to that of the fifth class. This century, however, consisted of three subdivisions according to the amount of their pro- perty, called respectively the accensi velati^ the proletarii and capite censi : the accensi velati were those whose pioperty was at least 1500 asses, or originally 300 asses, and they served as supernu- meraries in the army without arms, but ready U